Customer Reviews

Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms: A Lifetime of Memories from Striking Out the Babe to Teeing It Up with the President

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

True fans have always known that the real story of baseball players and their lives lay somewhere between the idealized William Bendix/Gary Cooper portrayals of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and the hatchet jobs done by Jim Bouten and his like. "Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms" is that story.

Elden Auker and Tom Keegan tell the story of baseball players who are basically honest, moral and hard-working guys doing a job, albeit one of the best jobs anyone could ever have. Do they have their faults and weaknesses, their bouts with anger and depression? Yes, of course. Who doesn't? Do they love their job and the game of baseball? Yes, but they don't obsess over it. They love their families and friends more.

This book is touching and sincere, funny and raunchy all at once. This is a wonderful story and a wonderful book, engagingly told and smartly written. It is a must read for baseball fans, or for anyone looking for a good read that also helps keep life in perspective.

Elden Auker provides the reader with a number of interesting stories from his rich interesting life. Some of the stories I have read in other books, but Mr. Auker provides his own frank opinions on a number of baseball personalities. He pulls no punches in his dislike for Leo Durocher whom he regards as a thief for stealing The Babe's watch. Nevertheless, Leo was a great manager and he turned his life around before he died which should account for something. Auker believes Pete Rose should not be reinstated into baseball because baseball has ironclad evidence that he bet on baseball but Rose will never admit it. Auker states that Charles Comiskey is the one who should have been kicked out of baseball because Auker says that Joe Jackson was given $5,000 by the mob and when he turned it in to Comiskey and said, "Here, I don't want this money. I don't want in on this deal.", Comiskey told him to keep his mouth shut. I have read quite a bit on the Black Sox scandal, but I have never come across this story. That Jackson accepted $5,000 I can agree with, but that he turned it in to Comiskey with the above comments, is certainly news to me. Nevertheless, Auker has led a full life which has included more than baseball. I would suggest you read the book. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

It's inconceivable that this man, 90 years old, had such a wealth of stories, yet no one had ever bothered to ask him to write a book. This is the best baseball book I've read since Boys of Summer. Very entertaining and well written.

ELDEN TELLS A WONDERFUL STORY. HIS BOOK IS A VERY EASY READ. I FINISHED IT IN ONE DAY. THE ONLY THING I WISHED HE WOULD HAVE TALKED ABOUT MORE WAS THE BASEBALL PART. WHILE HIS TIME AFTER BASEBALL WAS INTERESTIING, I WISH HE WOULD HAVE INCLUDED A FEW MORE "WAR STORIES" FROM THE DUGOUT. HOWEVER, THE BOOK IS STILL OUTSTANDING. A MUST READ

Elden Auker, with the aid of celebrated New York sportswriter Tom Keegan crafts an autobiographical piece spanning his 90+ years. Auker was born in rural Kansas and graduated as a three sports star from Kansas State university. Deciding that his quickest road to success was through baseball, he signed a professional contract to pitch for the Detroit Tigers.

Auker developed an unorthodox submarine delivery which allowed him to enjoy a creditable 10 year major league career. Along the way he befriended some of the greats of the game such as Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and countless others. Auker was wise enough to create a life for himself outside the game. He evolved into a highly thought of executive in the abrasives industry. As such he rubbed elbows and played golf with some of the paragons of both politics and industry.

The book is essentially an array of amusing stories which formulate the backbone of Mr. Auker's long and fruitful life. This was one of the better sports type books I've read in that Auker feels no compulsion to be politically correct on many issues.

Elden Auker beat Satchel Paige, played golf with Babe Ruth and won World Series games. On top of that he was a three sport star at Kansas State. Auker was actually involved in these events unlike the fictional Forrest Gump.

He gives you the real inside baseball. Find out what started Boston fans hating Ted Williams.

Find out what player stole money from Babe Ruth.

What was Elden's role in Dimaggio's streak?

Many other great stories.

Some of them make you realize how coarse the country has become, viz, the story about the Providence College player.

Auker is 90 and a real baseball treasure.

Inside baseball through the intelligent and unassuming eyes of a little-known, but great, athlete of the 1930's and 40's, and a successful businessman thereafter.

I read a lot of baseball books and this is one of the best I've come across in years. I took it straight home from the bookstore and read it in one sitting.
Auker tells us what baseball was like in the '30s without getting on a soapbox about how wonderful the old days were.
It uses humor in just the right doses and offers plenty of insight into a past era.
One minor complaint: Toward the end, we get a little too much about his post-baseball life. But that's not near enough to bump this from the elite of baseball books. This one will endure.

Oerall, an enjoyable memoir. Auker, a submarine pitcher who might be classified as a member of baseball's solid middle class of performers, had a long and successful career in business after his playing days. At age 90, he apparently continues to live independently with his wife of almost 70 years in retirement in Florida. His tales mostly ring true, allowing for the human habit of telling things in a way that enhances the role of the storyteller somewhat. This book ranks well above most baseball memoirs, if not, in my opinion, as high as "Rowdy Richard" (Dick Bartell's autobiography) or "Cobb Would Have Caught It" covering Detroit Tigers baseball over the years. I would have given this book 41/2 stars if that rating were available. I do question, as did one earlier reviewer, the story concerning Joe Jackson's effort to return mob money to Comiskey, who refused to take it; that is one I have never heard before, unlike the story of Durocher stealing from Babe Ruth & being beaten up by the Babe as a result, a story long in circulation. One of the book's sidebars, presumably not by Auker, contains one of the biggest errors ever allowed to slip into a baseball memoir. It states that Babe Ruth hit .271 with 6 homers in 1934, the year he hit his 700th homer at Navin Field in Detroit. Who let this whopper slip by? A quick glance at the record books by the writer or editor would have disclosed that Ruth hit .288 with 22 homers & 84 RBIs that year-not very Ruthian but hardly as putrid as the writer would have it. (Nor could it be a reference to his statistics at the time of the 700th homer which was his 14th of that season.) Where did those numbers come from? There is also a reference, in the body of the book, to Auker pitching in the first game of the 1935 World Series in Chicago; actually, the first game was in Detroit & the third game of the series,which was the first game played in Chicago, is the game being referenced. Not technically an error but confusingly worded. These minor things aside, the book is a quick, fun read & should be enjoyed by all baseball fans.

I was given this book as a gift and I think it's great! If you love baseball history, you'll love this book!